When an architect is invited to design the interior of a medical institution, he is actually asked to choose the color of the walls and floor. The fact is that the layout in such buildings is done by technologists - this is due to a huge number of norms, requirements and restrictions. In the case of the interior of "Clinic 31", the chief architect of ABD Architects' projects, Maria Korneeva, also had to work within extremely tough frameworks. In particular, it was not so easy to convince the customer that it is worth investing not only in equipment and specialists, but also in the interior, which contributes to the most effective treatment.
Since a person reacts most actively to color, then colorism in the solution of this interior is assigned perhaps the most decisive role. It is no secret that a medical institution is associated primarily with white, and the interior of "Clinic 31" is no exception: it is this color that dominates in the design of its interiors. In order to make it look clearer and clearer, the architects introduced black (they have separate zones on the floor), and added light gray to soften the contrast. However, such a monochrome scale needed accents. The authors and the customer spent a long time deciding on the color that would be iconic and guiding in the interior, and in the end they opted for orange - bright, carrying a charge of cheerfulness and positive. Public areas are accentuated in orange in the clinic, which allows patients to better navigate in space. In the offices, everything is much calmer, where blue is added to the monochrome scale as an accent. By the way, as in the corridors, the office space is clearly zoned - with the help of flooring in different shades, the desktop area, the entrance area and the observation area are highlighted.
We all know from our own experience that the biggest problem of polyclinics is long corridors, and in this building, low ceilings were added to it, since initially it had a different function and was not designed for that huge amount of communications that in any medical institution located behind the ceiling panels. The architects were forced to develop a whole arsenal of planning tricks and gimmicks in order to compensate for the monotony of the corridors. For example, ceilings of different heights add dynamism to them, waiting areas "embedded" in long passages help to get rid of unnecessary straightness of communication axes, the same function is performed by diagonal stripes on the floor, duplicated on the ceiling with the help of lamps.
The part of the building where the hospital is located is simpler, so the main attention of the architects was focused on the planning and design of the chambers, among which the "luxury" chambers, decorated with natural wood, stand out. However, there is also a public area in the hospital wing that required its own decision - this is a hall for meeting visitors or spending time outside the ward. Its authors accentuated the project using a glass niche. In general, it should be noted that glass wall decoration, which refracts light and visually expands the boundaries of space, has become almost a key technique in the interior design of "Clinic 31". Since the architects did not have the opportunity to make redevelopment, it was with the help of such decoration that they were able to visually change the proportions of the premises, "move" the walls in the right directions. In addition, glass can also carry an advertising function, become, if desired, the basis for a changeable image.
The architects tried to solve the hall of the first floor with the main registry as traditional as possible. It is finished with a combination of travertine and wood panels, which are perfectly matched to each other in color and delimited by metal joining. The direction of movement of visitors in the lobby is set using light. From the entrance to the reception, the illumination increases, then a light pause follows, and then, in the area of the counter itself and the columns in front of it, the lighting becomes more active again. The path from the reception to the elevator hall is indicated by a luminous cube - in fact, these are engineering communications that the architects hid in illuminated glass and thus turned into a memorable landmark. The upper part of the cube is highlighted with an orange backlit stripe, which creates the feeling of rushing in sunlight, and visually "tears off" the ceiling, which is too low for a public space. Special built-in lamps also help to visually "dissolve" the low ceiling of the elevator hall, behind the light of which its plane is simply lost.
Along with a polyclinic and a hospital, Clinic 31 also includes a hydropathic facility located in the basement. Here the architects saw their main task in overcoming the feeling of enclosed space. Since the basement is located under the inner courtyard, its rooms are illuminated using skylights. And in order for the sun to be present in the spa even on the gloomiest day, the authors built artificial lighting into the wells of the lanterns, imitating the sun's rays.
Another decoration of the hydropathic establishment is the winter garden. The most interesting thing is that it also arose out of considerations of necessity - the architects tried to somehow “disguise” the winding corridor connecting the elevator hall and the reception of the lower level, and the idea of filling this space with light and greenery seemed to them the most successful. Lamps with a special spectrum allow even the most whimsical plants to survive here, and their location is thought out so that the bright light does not blind visitors. The theme of connection with nature is continued by the waterfall, it gives a feeling of freshness spilled in the air and thematically matches the profile of the institution perfectly.
